Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu
	Shin Muso Hayashizaki Ryu
	Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu
	Muso Shinden Ryu
	Omori Ryu
	Shindo Munen Ryu
	Tamiya Ryu
	Mugai Ryu
	Ono-ha Hoki Ryu
	Seitei Iai (curriculum)
	Keishi Ryu
	Toyama Ryu

Iaido, the art of drawing and using the traditional Japanese sword (katana) as it is practiced today, is essentially the product of Japanese swordsmen operating in the nineteenth and the twentieth century. In fact, the term Iaido itself was popularized in the 1930 period by grand master Nakayama Hakudo (see below).

The very old schools of Iai-jutsu, which sword techniques were developed for combat, are either extant today or had to change their curriculum in order to remain popular and survive the modern era of budo. The many different techniques of sword drawing as we practice them today in Iaido schools, are probably quit different from what the samurai of the old Japan used to learn. 

Today, all Iaido schools subscribe to non-combative aims and purposes. 




TENSHIN SHODEN KATORI SHINTO RYU


In the latter half of the fifteenth century, almost a hundred years before Hayashizaki Jinsuke Shigenobu was born (see below), the founder of the Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu, Izasa Ienao (Choisai) [1486-...] and his leading swordsmen, had already devised the dynamic art of Iai-jutsu (with a katana) that today still characterizes this ryu.

From Izasa Ienao to Izasa Yoshisada Sensei (actual headmaster), a long lineage of teachers have preserved the curriculum of this school. The school is isolated with few students, very classical in his teachings, has no grades and no competitions. The students were still, up to recently, required to sign their inscription in the school with their blood . Work and dedication is at the very core of this school.

One of the best known swordsman from this school his Yoshio Sugino Sensei (10th dan) who was responsible for the coordination of the different swords stunts in the well known Japanese movie "The Seven Samurai" from Akira Kurosawa.

SHIN MUSO HAYASHIZAKI RYU

Hayashizaki Jinsuke Shigenobu (c. 1546-1621), is popularly credited as being the originator and greatest expositor of the art of drawing the sword, also known as Iai-jutsu. More than two hundred ryu have been founded in the afterglow of this amazing swordsman.

Jinsuke formally named his sword-drawing art Shimmei Muso Ryu, but his ardent followers renamed it Shin Muso Hayashizaki Ryu. It is considered the foundation for the two major styles of Iaido practiced today: Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu and Muso Shinden Ryu (see below).

In each generation of the Shin Muso Hayashizaki Ryu swordsmen, a headmaster (soke), has been appointed to guide the practice of the art, and each soke has had his own influence on the development of the style.

Some soke of the school would not only teach and perpetuate the original style but would also leave behind a parallel style (ryu) with what they considered new improvements on the old style:

Hasegawa Chikaranosuke Eishin (Hidenobu) , the 7th soke of the Shin Muso Hayashizaki Ryu, named his own ryu the Eishin Ryu. We attribute to him the position of iai tate-hiza and the wearing of the katana with the cutting edge uppermost, thrust through the sash.

His influence on the Shin Muso Hayashizaki Ryu curriculum was such that the following headmaster, Arai Seitetsu Kiyonobu (8th), united the Eishin Ryu to the central line of the Shin Muso Hayashizaki Ryu and it was now referred to has the Jinsuke-Eishin Ryu line of teaching.   

The 9th soke, Hayashi Rokudayu Morimasa, after studies under Omori Rokurozaemon Masamitsu of the Omori ryu style (see below), introduced in the curriculum some techniques from the seiza position and for the first time, a ceremonial or etiquette (reishiki).

Beyond the eleventh leader, there is no clear line of descent of headmasters who succeeded Jinsuke in the lineage of the ryu. There was a split in leadership and two major branch lines were borne:

The ha being a branch evolved from an original centerline teachings. Some modern authorities regard the Shimomura-ha as the base source for the Muso Shinden Ryu and the Tanimura-ha as the base source for the Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu.




MUSO JIKIDEN EISHIN RYU


Oe Masamichi Shikei (1852-1927), the seventeenth headmaster of the Tanimura-ha, suggested during the Taisho era (1912-1926) that the Jinsuke-Eishin line of teachings be uniformly taught under the formal title of Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu and that its techniques include those of the Omori Ryu (see below). 

To the eleven Omori Ryu techniques, Nakayama Hakudo, one of his student (see below), added a twelfth, and Oe Masamichi Shikei renamed them and codified them as the shoden, a first level of study in the Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu art of iai-jutsu. Most of the shoden techniques begin from seiza posture.

Oe Masamichi Shikei , Nakayama Hakudo, and other swordsmen codified ten techniques of the Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu as chuden, a middle level of study. All of these techniques begin from tate-hiza posture except the last, which begins from seiza. A third level called okuden, the hidden or "secret" teachings, was standardized (eight techniques in tate-hiza and thirteen in tachi-waza).

Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu is one of the most practiced form of Iaido in Japan.




MUSO SHINDEN RYU


Nakayama Hakudo, or Hiromichi (1873-1958), is to the popularization of modern Iaido what Jinsuke was to the popularization of old Iai-jutsu. The very term "Iaido" first appeared in 1932 and was popularized by Nakayama Hakudo.

Nakayama Hakudo was a native of Ishikawa prefecture. He moved to Tokyo at the age of 19 and entered the dojo of Shingoro Negishi of Shindo Munen Ryu. 

He studied under many teachers of different Iai-jutsu and ken-jutsu schools: The Omori Ryu, Muraku Ryu, Itto Ryu, Muso Jikiden-Eishin Ryu (both the Shimomura and Tanimura branches) to name a few.

From his collaboration with Oe Masamichi Shikei (seventeenth headmaster of the Tanimura-ha), was born the principle of teaching in three stages: shoden, chuden and okuden. He helped codify the actual curriculum of the Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu.

Under the critical eye of  swordsman Hosokawa (Gisho) Yoshimasa , the fifteenth headmaster of the Jinsuke-Eishin line (Shimomura-ha), Hakudo became the sixteenth and last undisputed successor headmaster of the Jinsuke-Eishin line in Shimomura-ha.

Eventually, his interpretation of all his teachings lead to the development of his own particular style of sword-drawing art, which he called the Muso Shinden Ryu batto-jutsu (1932) at first, then Muso Shinden Ryu Iaido later.

Nakayama was a famous master of iaido and the Shindo Munen Ryu sword and a friend of Morihei Ueshiba. He trained many of the top swordsmen of his day and operated the famous Yushinkan dojo near Korakuen in Tokyo. He was instrumental in arranging the marriage between Kiyoshi Nakakura and Ueshiba's daughter, Matsuko. 

Muso Shinden Ryu is today one of the most popular and widespread form of Iaido in Japan and abroad.




OMORI RYU

Omori Rokurozaemon Masamitsu (from the Shinkage school of swordsmanship) had been a direct disciple of Eishin but was expelled by the later for personal reasons. He thus developed his own very distinctive style of sword-drawing art, the Omori ryu.

Before Masamitsu's development of the Omori Ryu, the swordsmen of the Jinsuke-Eishin line used the tate-hiza and tachi-ai postures from which to bring the sword into action. Masamitsu disagreed with the use of these postures in effecting the draw of the sword. He based his starting posture on seiza as he learned it in his study of Ogasawara Buke Reiho (etiquette).

The techniques of his art became those he had learned from Eishin but as conditioned by the saya-no-uchi batto gohon, the five forms of sword-drawing technique, of the Yagyu Shinkage Ryu (Bishu). Masamitsu devised eleven techniques that formed the basis of the Omori Ryu sword-drawing art. This new development, and probably an apology, brought him back into the good graces of Eishin.

The sword techniques of the Omori Ryu were incorporated in the curriculum of the Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu and the Muso Shinden Ryu later at the shoden level. 




SHINDO MUNEN RYU

The Shindo Munen Ryu was founded by Fukui Heiemon Yoshihira (Kahei) [1750], who based its teachings on those of the Shinkage Ryu, the Shinkage Ichien Ryu, and the Ichien Ryu. 

Saito Yakuro (1799-1872), a Shindo Munen Ryu swordsman and the proprietor of the anti-Tokugawa Rempeikan, a martial training hall in Edo, brought the art of sword drawing into the political sphere as his hall became the regular meeting place for Choshu, Mito, and Tosa dissidents. There he taught Negishi Shingoro, who later taught Nakayama Hakudo (Hiromichi).

Other influential Shindo Munen Ryu swordsmen include Goto Shojiro (1838-1897) and Itagaki Taisuke (1837-1919).




TAMIYA RYU

Tamiya Ryu Iaijutsu was founded by Tamiya Heibei Narimasa (1573-1591) of Tokugawa Kishu province. He was a direct student of Hayashizaki Jinsuke Shigenobu and second soke of the Shin Muso Hayashizaki Ryu. He was appointed as Sword Instructor to the first three Tokugawa Shogun. In 1797 Tsumaki Junjiro Mototsugu inherited the school and since then the Tsumaki family have succeeded through Grand Master Tsumaki Seirin (recent).

MUGAI RYU 

Founded by Tsuji Gettan Sukemochi (1649-1728) of the Omi province. The son of a farmer, he began his experience with swordsmanship as a disciple of kenjutsu at the age of thirteen with Yamaguchi Bokushinsai (Yamaguchi swordsmanship). He also studied Zen with master Sekitan Zenshi. When he was 45 years old (1694), he experienced satori (enlightenement) and named his school Mugai ryu after a sequence in a poem by his master where the word "Mugai" is found.

He never married or had children of his own, but adopted a boy (Tsuji Kimata Sukehide) who later became the second soke of the style. Today three main lines of Mugai ryu exist: Edo, Tosa and Himeji. The lineage of the style can be traced to Hayashizaki Jinsuke Shigenobu through Jikyo ryu and Tamiya Ryu.

The lineage from Hayashizaki Jinsuke is as follows: Tamiya Heibei Shigemasa (2nd soke of Muso Ryu and founder of Tamiya Ryu), Miwa Gempei, Yamamoto Matabei, Asahina Mudo, Wada Heisuke Masakatsu (Founder of Shin Tamiya Ryu),Taga Jikyoken Morimasa (Founder of Jikyo Ryu), Tsuji Gettan Sukemochi.

The incumbent 15th Soke, Shiokawa Hosho, has appointed four successors who will all bear the title of "Ju-Roku-Dai Soke" (16th Soke), each of them in their own region of Japan. Kai Kuniyuki Sensei has been designated 16th Soke in the Kyushu area.




ONO-HA HOKI RYU

Hoki ryu was founded by Katayama Hoki no Kami Fujiwara Hisayasu who was born in 1576. It is said that the founder was one of Hayashizaki Jinsuke Shigenobu's students. Katayama Hisayasu served the Toyotomi family up through the Osaka Summer Campaign in 1615. At one point he was asked to demonstrate his sword techniques for the Emperor, an act for which he received court rank (Jugoinoshita Hoki no Kami).  

The original name for Hisayasu's tradition was Ikkan ryu. Later the name was changed to Katayama Hoki ryu. At present day the tradition is generally refered to as just Hoki ryu. 

The prefix Ono-ha comes from Ono Kumao sensei whose dojo was in Kyoto. Ono Kumao was the student of Hoshino Kuemon, who was the 10th Soke of Hoki ryu and Ono Kumao received menkyo kaiden from him. 

Ono Kumao himself always spoke about his teachings as Hoki ryu but his student called the tradition Ono-ha Hoki ryu since this line was no longer in direct connection to the Soke. 




SEITEI IAI

As the teaching of the Seitei Iai was refined, it was decided to add three more kata to further round out a student's training. The new kata were introduced in 1981.

Today, the curriculum of the Seitei Iai is composed of twelve different techniques.




KEISHI RYU

Keishi cho ryu iai is the traditional techniques of the Japanese police school. Skillful sword men from well-established traditional schools such as Asayama Ichiden ryu, Shindo Munen ryu, Tamiya ryu, yoshin Meichi ryu, and Tatsumi ryu constructed the curriculum of this school. Originally the curriculum included besides iai also training in standing fencing techniques. This was done in special kata forms and was referred to as Keishicho Gekken Kata. The current iai curriculum includes five techniques and is performed from standing position. 




TOYAMA RYU

In 1925, lieutenant Morinaga Kiyoshi contacted Nakayama Hakudo (16th soke of the Shimomura-ha of the Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu), on behalf of the army, to compile a set of sword forms which could be used on the future battlefield. 

Morinaga Kiyoshi Sensei first served as a fencing instructor then became the director of the Toyama Academy from 1939 to 1945.

Toyama Ryu is based on the practical application of the sword as a weapon. It focuses on not only the physical details of every action involved in using the sword , but also the mental and spiritual meaning which also must play an equal part in understanding the sword as was once done long ago.

There are three major traditions of Toyama Ryu iaido: Morinaga Kiyoshi sensei, Nakamura Taizaburo sensei, and Yamaguchi Yuuki sensei. Of the three, only Nakamura sensei actively teaches class. Morinaga sensei died in 1981 and Yamaguchi sensei school is still active and is taught through Hontai Yoshin Ryu jujutsu.